New York teacher called teenage student 720 times in one school year

2 years ago

A US high school teacher allegedly called a teenager at the school more than 700 times in one year and flirted with him.According to the New York Post, Keri Twente, an English as a second language teacher, spent hours on the phone with the 19-year-old, who she was tutoring at the time.
The 29-year-old was fired from John Dewey High School in Gravesend, New York for gross misconduct after five years working there.
However, Twente - who is seeking to have the decision overturned for a lesser penalty - tells the Post she was “constantly helping” students at the school and had a “line out the door”.
She also denies her relationship with the 19-year-old student, who moved to the US from Russia when he was 18, was sexual or romantic in any way.

The teen was in Twente's class in 2015-16, and was assigned to other teachers the following year but continued to seek her help.

Speaking to the Post, the teacher says she often called him in the morning to wake him up for school, and the pair would often speak on the phone after midnight.

“He was learning English. I was studying Russian. We would correct each other’s grammar,” she tells the publication.
Phone records show the teen called Twente’s phone 650 times over the space of one school year, with her calling him 720 times in return.
The teacher says not all the calls were conversations, with many being simply attempts to contact him.
Twente claims one of the city investigators who brought forward the case, Miguel Ruiz, lied and “withheld exculpatory information”.
In a recording of the interview between two investigators and the teen in question - which the student secretly recorded - he is reportedly heard denying any physical intimacy between him and Twente.
However, the Post reports these comments were left out of Ruiz’s notes, final report, and hearing testimony.